Guide to the Microfilm Edition of the

FBI File on Cesar Chavez and the United Farm workers A Microfilm Publication by

SR

Scholarly Resources Inc. Wilmington, Delaware

Publisher's Notes Scholarly Resources does not claim copyright to the ma-terials comprising this collection or to the accompanyingguide. Acknowledgment Scholarly Resources microfilm publications of the Fed-eral Bureau of Investigation Files are produced with thecooperation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Wash-ington, DC. ISBN 0-8420-4174-5 Manufactured in the United States of America Published 1996 Scholarly Resources Inc. 104 Greenhill Avenue Wilmington, DE 19805-1897 Telephone 302-654-7713 or 1-800-772-8937 (toll free) Also available from Scholarly Resources microfilm: FBI File on Malcolm X (10 rolls) FBI File on the Muslim Mosque Inc. (3 rolls) FBI File on the Organization of Afro-American Unity (1 roll) FBI File on the NAACP (4 rolls) FBI File on Reverend Jesse Jackson (1 roll) FBI File on W. E. B. Du Bois (1 roll) FBI Assassination File: Martin Luther King,Jr. (25 rolls) FBI File on the Moorish Science Temple of America (Noble Drew Ali) (3 rolls)

Introduction Cesar Estrada Chavez was born to Mexican immigrant parents on their family farm near Yuma, Arizona, on March 31, 1927. During the Great Depression the family lost the farm and joined the thousands of other landless Americans as migrant farm workers wandering the southwestern United States. Despite a transient home life, the necessity of working in the fields to help support the fam-ily, and thirty different schools, Chavez did manage to finish the seventh grade. In 1938 his father found permanent work at a dried-fruit packing plant in San Jose, California, where Chavez was introduced to unions when his father organized the plant's workers. During World War II, Chavez served in the U.S. Navy for two years. After the war he married and settled in California, becoming a vol- unteer organizer for the Community Service Organizations (CSO) in 1950. The CSO was organized by Saul Alinsky, a selfproclaimed "professional radical," to create a MexicanAmerican voting bloc. Chavez registered MexicanAmericans and helped them deal with government agencies. During this period he did much to fill out his limited formal education and to learn organizational and leadership skills. He idealized Alinsky's social activism and absorbed Ghandi's teachings on nonviolence. Singled out for his leadership ability, he rose quickly in the organization, becoming the California-Arizona regional direc-tor in 1958. As a regional director, Chavez's attention was drawn to the plight of the migrant farm workers in the agricultur-ally rich area of California where he lived. Organizing these workers into a union seemed to offer the solution to many of their problems. When in 1962 the CSO board repeat-edly refused to support Chavez's idea for a farm worker's union, he resigned. He moved to the Central Valley, and with a few others slowly built the National Farm Workers' Association, today known as the United Farm Workers of America.

Chavez successfully merged the struggle for better working conditions for the migrants with improving their lives and standing in society, dubbing the hybrid "La Cause." Using traditional strikes and boycotts combined with nonviolent techniques, such as long marches and fasts, to generate publicity, Chavez successfully established a measure of stability and security for some of the migrants' lives. The union's struggles increased farm workers' wages throughout the country and made many workers eligible for medical insurance, pensions, and unemployment in- surance. Above all, the union gave the workers a mechanism to challenge their employers. The work of Chavez on behalf of the migrants resulted in him being closely examined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. His desire to form a union was not necessarily a problem; however, a number of factors brought him and his followers to the attention of the authorities in Washington, DC. First and most obvious was the race and class of Chavez and the migrants. Organizing and empowering poor minorities inevitably led to radicalism and sub-version in the view of the FBI dominated by Director Herbert Hoover, who saw Chavez's actions as an epidemic of empowerment movements in the United States during the 1960s. Second, was Chavez's close association with Alinsky, already a known radical. Third, the structure and appearance of the union made it suspect: Chavez was the union. It is clear today that its success depended on his great personal charisma, thereby reminding those on guard against Communist infiltration of the personality cults of the Soviet bloc. The union's rallies, with their great number of poor people singing and hundreds of red and black banners fluttering in the air, completed an image of sub- version in the minds of the Bureau. Finally, the potential threat that a farm workers' union posed to the enormously powerful and Anglo-controlled agribusiness of California's Central Valley ensured that Chavez would receive national attention. In 1968, Chavez led a strike of grape pickers in the Central Valley. Marked by a nearly month-long fast by

Chavez, and culminating in a nationwide boycott of table grapes that spread to Europe, the strike became an international cause celebre. One poll found that 17 million Americans had joined the boycott. The strike ended late in 1970 when the growers, under this tremendous economic pressure, agreed to a three-year contract with the union, thus marking the high point of the union. Its membership peaked early in the 1970s, with approximately 20 percent of California's 200,000 farm workers under its banner. Chavez died in 1993 in Arizona; he was sixty-six. The union that he founded has struggled to continue without him. He lived to see many of his accomplishments slip away as his union faced numerous problems, not the least of which were the constant arrival of new workers willing to work for any amount, and a nation that has turned its back on union action. The grape pickers walkout was not merely a labor dis- pute. Chavez viewed it, and the union, as part of the larger national drive for social justice that marked the 1960s. It was exactly this drive for social justice, or to overturn the status quo that frightened Hoover and led the FBI to begin a file on Chavez and his organization. These microfilm rolls deal primarily with the 1960s, the period of the United Farm Workers greatest growth. They will be of interest to scholars and students in a number of areas, including twentiethcentury U.S. history, labor history, the 1960s, social history, Mexican immigrants, and Chicano history. These rolls also provide one glimpse of the FBI's interest in supposedly subversive groups during the era, and whom the establishment found threatening. The documents reproduced here were drawn from the Washington files of the FBI and have been released under the Freedom of Information Act; certain documents or portions of documents have been deleted by the FBI pur- suant to provisions of that legislation. The material hasbeen filmed in the exact order and condition in which it was released, and every effort has been made to publish the most legible copies available.

The file is in approximate chronological order, and the FBI did not index documents. The Roll Notes is not a complete inventory of the file; however, it gives an indication of the types of material or specific documents that may be particularly worthwhile for research. Paul R. Beezley

Roll Notes FBI File: 161-4719 1966 Roll 1, 0001-0249 Chavez considered for staff position at White House Background information on Cesario Estrada Chavez Chavez nomination protested News articles from: The Denver Post (Jun. 16, 1966) "Spanish-American Problems Outlined" "Spanish-American Solidarity Urged" Suspected Communist infiltration of the National Farm Workers Assn. (NFWA) Transcript of Chavez testimony before U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Amending Migratory Labor Laws Editorial published in the Delano Record (Sep. 27, 1966) "A Cruel Hoax" FBI File: 100-444762 SECTION 2 Roll 1, 0250-0336 Jan.-Apr. 1966 Communist infiltration of the National Farm Workers Assn. (AFWA) Proposed march sponsored by Congress of Racial Equality, from Delano to Sacramento, California March sponsored by Chicago Citizens Committee to aid Delano Farm Workers FBI File: 105-157123 1966-Aug. 1975 Roll 1, 0338-0478 Alleged threat against Cesar Chavez and President Lyndon Johnson Attempt to organize the farm laborers of Coachella Valley, California (Jul. 1969) Robert F. Kennedy proposed commemoration program (Sep. 1969) News articles from: The NY Times (Dec. 1970) "Chavez Ordered Freed by Court"

Cincinnati Post & Times Star (Dec. 1970) "Chavez at Work," by Whitney Young, Jr. Chavez jailed for contempt of court (Dec. 1970) News articles from: Cincinnati Post & Times Star (Jan. 27, 1971) "Pentagon Lettuce Protest to Continue" The Sunday Star (Jan. 17, 1971) "Chavez Files Suit to Curb Army's Lettuce Buying" Surveillance of Chavez at various rallies supporting the boycott of lettuce News article from: The Washington Post-Times Herald (Jan. 1971) "Ex-Agent Sees Plot to Kill Cesar Chavez" Chavez undergoes a fast to protest Arizona's new farm labor law (Jun. 1972) Chavez activities organizing boycott of Safeway Stores for selling non-union lettuce Pope John Paul VI receives Cesar Chavez (Oct. 1974) FBI File: 100-444762 SECTION 6 Roll 1, 0480-0716 Jan. 1971-May 1976 Activities of the United Farm Workers including: Protests of the U.S. Army procurement of boycotted lettuce Leaflet: "Force Lettuce Out of Mess Halls" Demonstration at Pogue's Department Store, Cincinnati, OH (Feb. 1972) Picketing Vice President Spiro T. Agnew (Mar. 1972) Protest of Farm Bill before Arizona State Legislature (Mar. 1972) Demonstration during Republican Women's Conference, Phoenix, AZ (Apr. 1972) Demonstration at Federal Court Building, St. Louis, MO (Oct. 1972) Demonstrations and violence in connection with Farm Workers organizational activities, El Paso, TX (Aug. 1975)

FBI File: 100-444762 SECTION 5 Roll 1, 0719-0920 Nov. 1968-Jan. 1971 News article from: Globe Mail, Toronto, Ontario "Agitators fail to gain support for grape boycott in Canada" Mexican-American Youth Organization (MAYO) student members boycott classes in protest over "blatant discrimination" by faculty members (Nov. 1968) News articles from: The Monitor, McAllen, TX "Action Must be Taken Against E-E Students" Valley Morning Star, Harlingen, TX "Here are the 'Demands' of the Striking Students" Corpus Christi Caller "Loitering Charges Filed on 5 Pupils" Activities of the United Farm Workers including: Demonstration to gain union recognition for grape pickers (Pittsburgh, Nov. 1968) Grape boycott sought at Ohio State University (Jan. 1969) Farm Workers strike in Rio Grande City, TX (Jan. 1969) Grape boycott at five Pittsburgh supermarkets (Jun. 1969) News article from: The L.A. Times (Sep. 1969) "Cesar Chavez Begins 7-Week Tour of U.S." FBI File: 100-444762 SECTION 4 Roll 1, 0921-1058 Jun. 1967-Nov. 1968 Activities of the National Farm Workers Assn. including: Farm Workers strike in Rio Grande City, TX Communist infiltration of the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO in Delano, California

Possible. picketing of U.S. Attorney General Ramsay Clark by United Farm Workers FBI File: 157-15963 Dec. 1970 Roll 1, 1059-1070 Activities of the National Farm Workers Assn. includes: Picketing Dow Chemical, Chicago, IL Pamphlet: "Off DOW" FBI File: 9-48291 Jul. 1968 Roll 1,1071-1130 Investigation into threats against Cesar Chavez Obscene mail received by Cesar Chavez Investigation of phone call threatening the life of Cesar Chavez FBI File: 44-51593 Jan.-Mar. 1972 Roll 1, 1131-1187 Investigation of murder plot against Cesar Chavez FBI File: SECTION 1 Oct.-Nov. Communist Assn.,

100-444762

Roll 1, 1188-1230

1965 infiltration of the National Farm Workers Delano, CA

FBI File: 157-33076 Sep. 1974-Jan. 1975 Roll 1,1231-1277 Activities of the United Farm Workers include: Civil unrest following demonstration at Yuma, AZ Incidents of violence and beating of illegal aliens at Yuma, AZ FBI File: 176-69 Aug. 1968 Roll 1, 1278-1287 Union workers protest lack of police protection

FBI File: 173-9333 Jul.-Sep. 1973 Roll 1, 1288-1367 Investigation of organized violence and denial of constitutional rights by teamsters against the Farm Workers Union in Coachella Valley, CA FBI File: 44-66143 Sep. 1975 Roll 1, 1368-1374 Investigation into alleged violation of Farm Workerscivil rights following a peaceful demonstration in Reeves County, TX FBI File: 44-63337 Jan.-Mar. 1975 . Roll 1, 1375-1393 Investigation of alleged violation of Civil Rights Statutes in connection with alleged violence and brutality against striking Farm Workers in Phoenix, AZ FBI File: 44-61404 Aug. 1974 Roll 1, 1394-END Investigation into the civil rights of Sheriff's office and personnel violated by United Farm Workers Union and tomato picker pickets in Sacramento, CA FBI File: 44-60006 Mar. 1974-May 1976 Roll 2, 0001-0087 Investigation into break-ins at United Farm Worker Union offices in California allegedly tied to grape growers News article from: San Francisco Chronicle (Dec. 1975) "Big Cover-Up in Burglary Chavez Says" FBI File: 92-9831 Mar.-Jul. 1967 Roll 2, 0088-0109 Investigation into alleged violence in connection with efforts to organize farm workers in Rio Grande City, TX

FBI File: 58-10898 (no file) FBI File: 139-2387 Nov. 1965-Jun. 1966 Miscellaneous documents

Roll 2, 0110-0112 Roll 2, 0113-0119

FBI File: 44-57102 Jul.-Nov. 1973 Roll 2, 0120-0197 Investigation into alleged assault on members of the United Farm Workers by Teamsters (Sacramento, CA) Includes: "The Coachella Experience" published by the Task Force on Farm Workers, Wayne State University FBI File: 100-444762 SECTION 3 Roll 2, 0198-0399 May 1966-Jan. 1967 Activities of the National Farm Workers Assn. (NFWA) include: Sympathy demonstration at S & W Food Co., Chicago, in support of striking California grape pickers Communist infiltration of the NFWA, Delano, CA Proposed march from Rio Grande City to Austin, TX Striking farm workers Rio Grande City, TX FBI File: 100-478197 Sep.-Dec. 1973 Roll 2, 0400-0415 Activities of the United Farm Workers include: Demonstration in observance of Attica Day, JFK Federal Building, Boston FBI File: 157-27530 Dec. 1972 Roll 2, 0416-0418 Potential violence between United Farm Workers Union (UFWU) and Homestead Farm Owners, Homestead, FL

FBI File: 157-30054 Aug.-Oct. 1973 Roll 2, 0419-0478 Labor dispute between the United Farm Workers Union (UFWU) and Teamsters Union, Fresno County, CA FBI File: 159-3729 Jan.-Feb. 1973 Roll 2, 0479-0482 Investigation into destruction of United Farm Workers Union offices in California FBI File: Cross References Roll 2, 0484-0593 1966-1978; not in chronological order Activities of the United Farm Workers including: Dispute between United Farm Workers and Teamsters-Growers in California Teamster violence against Farm Workers ("wetbacks") (Aug. 1973) UFW charges that field workers had civil rights violated (Aug. 1973) UFW cited for disorderly conduct after picketing at food market in Dayton, OH (Nov. 1974) Investigation into alleged illegal arrest of United Farm Workers and children in Reeves County. TX (Jul. 1975) Student agitation, Univ. of S. Florida, campus meetings to gather support for the grape boycott (Jul. 1970) Disturbance following United Farm Workers Organizing Committee meeting at Coachella, CA (Apr. 1970) UFW Solidarity Committee (May 1975) Tension between UFW and Sugar Cane Growers. Clewiston, FL (Oct. 1972) UFW protests at Federal Building in Phoenix over use of illegal aliens (Aug. 1974) Cesar Chavez and UFW demonstrate against produce company, Yuma, AZ (Jun. 1978) UFW occupation and demonstration at U.S. Federal Building, Sacramento (Aug. 1974)

Cesar Chavez and UFWA protest and rally against Gallo Winery (Modesto, Feb. 1975) Bombing at UFW Organizing Committee office building (San Francisco, Apr. 1970) Bombing at UFW Co-Op Gas Station (Calif., Jun. 1973) Newspaper articles include: El Paso Herald-Post (Jun. 1975): "Farm Workers' Rights Statement is Planned" El Paso Times (Jul. 1975): "Pecos Report Alleges Law Violations" El Paso Times (Jul. 1975): "Sympathizers Arrested in Pecos County" Odessa-Republic (May 1969): "The Grape Fraud" FBI File: 44-43004 Jul.-Aug. 1969 Roll 2, 0594-0618 United Farm Workers Civil Rights complaint against the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department (AZ) News articles from: The Arizona Republic (May 1969) "The Grape Fraud" "Valley Stores Selling Grapes to be Picketed" The Phoenix Gazette (Apr. 1969) "Grape Industry Pickets Cast Eyes on Arizona" FBI File: 44-58258 Aug.-Oct. 1973 Roll 2, 0619-0628 Investigation of incident involving a sergeant of Kern County Sheriff's Office, Bakersfield, CA, and members of the United Farm Workers Union FBI File: 44-59048 Aug.-Nov. 1973 Roll 2, 0629-END Congressman Don Edwards (D-CA) handling of Civil Rights cases in Kern County, CA, involving the United Farm Workers and Teamsters